Video: Lead line hooks

One of my signature production traits is Lead-line Synth Hooks. Many songs are made up by instrumental hooks that are in the intros, choruses, and outros. You can even look at old Motown songs and some of the guitar or piano hooks are as important as the chorus looks themselves. So I apply the same philosophy to remixing. Generally I will come up with a synth hook that is either woven into the choruses or comes in an 8 bar section that follows the chorus, what I like to refer to as a post-chorus. So, I will open up the EXS24, close the MIDI parameters window here, choose the EXS24>Stereo, and I'm actually going to take a string sound, a Solina string.

In this course, author Josh Harris demonstrates constructing a remix using only a pre-existing vocal track as a starting point. The course shows how to time-stretch vocals, offers suggestions for establishing a musical direction, and explains how to audition and layer Apple loops. The course also covers programming beats using synths, generating vocal samples, arranging the remix, and creating master-quality final mixes.

Lead line hooks

One of my signature production traits is Lead-line Synth Hooks.Many songs are made up by instrumental hooks that are in the intros,choruses, and outros.You can even look at old Motown songs and some of the guitar or piano hooks areas important as the chorus looks themselves.So I apply the same philosophy to remixing.Generally I will come up with a synth hook that is either woven into thechoruses or comes in an 8 bar section that follows the chorus, what I like torefer to as a post-chorus.So, I will open up the EXS24, close the MIDI parameters window here, choose theEXS24>Stereo, and I'm actually going to take a string sound, a Solina string.

The Solina is an old vintage keyboard and I think I'm going to use that, eventhough it's considered a Synth Lead Line or a Lead-line Hook,I'm going to play with a string sound, and--(Music playing)--that's what the Solina sounds like, a very classic old vintage synth sound.And I will actually go ahead and move the attack of the sound down a little bit,which means that the sound will come out sounding a little bit punchier, moreappropriate for a synth-lead sound.

(Music playing)Let's loop the chorus, I'm going to experiment with some lead-line hooksunderneath the lead-vocal in the chorus and let's see how it sounds.(Music playing)Okay, so that gives me an idea where I want to head with the part, so I'mgoing to go ahead and record it in. Again, I'm looking for a synth-line hook that's memorable.

Something that you might even sing after you've heard it one or two times, soI'm going to record this part in.(Music playing)And I'll quantize it, 16A Swing, and I'll trim back the extra MIDI region thatI don't need and let's take a listen to it.

(Music playing)I really like the part, I'm not 100% sure that it works well in that section of the song.I will actually move the vocals over a little bit creating that post-chorussection that I mentioned in the early part of the movie, and what I mean bymoving the vocals over 8 bars, is that I'm moving verse 2 over, I'm not actuallymoving the chorus section over.

I click and hold where it's 66, 8 bars over will put this at 74, and Logic isprompting me with a question of do I want to move the automation data?I'm going to select Don't Move, there was some previous automation data on thetrack that I was playing around with and I actually don't need it to move.Let's shrink the tracks down in the Arrange window and I'm going to movethis over 8 bars and then lasso everything else and copy it. Option+Drag, Option+Drag.

So let's listen to the chorus section and the post-chorus section.(Music playing)That feels a bit more natural to me to have the Lead-Line Hook come after the vocal ends.

It's introducing a new section of the song and I'm opening up myself with theability to build the track up even more after the chorus section, which isreally what we'd like to cal the Hype.Here's a new 8 bar section, a very exciting 8 bar section that's been introducedas a result of the fact that the Lead- Line Hook didn't quite work underneath thelead-vocal for the choruses.While lead-line hooks might not make sense in every remix that you work on,they can certainly bring energy to a track.You may find yourself working on a remix of the song that doesn't have a strongchorus, and you may need to come up with a section of the song like we did here,called the Post-Chorus.

This also sets us up nicely for what I like to call Synth Candy which is comingup in the next movie.Where we fill in the holes with production Ear Candy and the track really starts totake on a finished sound at that point.

Learn by watching, listening, and doing, Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along Premium memberships include access to all exercise files in the library.

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Learn by watching, listening, and doing! Exercise files are the same files the author uses in the course, so you can download them and follow along. Exercise files are available with all Premium memberships.
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